Million dollar milestone opens 200th front door

For Daniel and Carol getting their own home in time for their wedding was the icing on the cake, but little did they know that hundreds of other buyers were also celebrating their own dreams of home ownership too.

The happy couple were the 200th recipients of Credit Union SA’s First Home Buyers Grant, with the South Australian company reaching the milestone of providing $1 million in grants since being launched in 2016 to help first home buyers find a place to call their own.

“We had been saving for our own home even before we got engaged at the end of 2015,” Daniel said. “Now we had our wedding to save for as well.

“Being eligible for a $5000 First Home Buyers Grant from Credit Union SA meant we definitely got to our savings goal sooner.

“All the time we were looking at homes and saving, house prices were going up and up. Once we knew we had the grant, we were able to get what we really wanted as soon as we saw it.

“We definitely saved a couple of months or so of missed opportunities.”

Credit Union SA’s CEO, Grant Strawbridge, said the customer-owned financial institution had developed the $5000 First Home Buyers Grant popular initiative to open as many front doors as possible for South Australian first home buyers.

“Across the nation we are seeing strong rises in property values, which continue to widen the gap for those who want to buy their first home. The result is that many first home buyers are being priced out of the market at the very time when they are working and saving hard for a deposit,” Grant says.

“We wanted to offer a practical way to help first home buyers – and the reaction from them has been nothing short of outstanding. We’re proud to have given back $1 million to South Australian communities through our $5000 First Home Buyers Grant, and look forward to helping open as many front doors as we can.”

Daniel and Carol not only opened their front door sooner than expected, they were also able to buy exactly the kind of home they were looking for.

“We wanted an older home on a large block, somewhere with good yard space where we could have a dog,” Daniel said. “It was also really important to us to buy near both our families which we’ve achieved.”

“Now we are doing some renovations, buying furniture and slowly getting ready to move in when we get married in December. Continuing to live with our parents until then is helping us save money for the wedding and our future.”

For Daniel and Carol, the experience of being a Credit Union SA First Home Buyers Grant recipient has been really positive. Daniel has nothing but praise for mobile lender Michelle Aalbersberg and the Credit Union SA team: “They were all so helpful, providing free property reports for us constantly which helped us do our research in the area we were looking to buy and answering all our questions. Everything went through so smoothly”

The First Home Buyers Grant provides a $5000 cashback on a mortgage that is at least $300,000 with a loan to value ratio greater than 80% and is provided at settlement. Applies to new and established homes – construction loans do not apply.

Lending criteria, fees and conditions apply. Offer is current as at 9/5/2017 and is subject to change. Minimum loan $300,000 with a loan to value ratio over 80% when purchasing a new (fully constructed) or established home. Construction loans do not qualify for the grant. To be eligible, applicants must not have previously owned residential property in Australia. Available to natural persons only (i.e. not a trustee or a company).